Let’s investigate a serious crime, shall we? I think it is a crime that not all technical solutions sales teams are successful.
Who are the team members? Different companies use different titles for the roles, but essentially there is a sales person, an AE (account executive) or AM (account manager), and a technical specialist, an SE (sales engineer, systems engineer) or SA (solutions architect). The extended team may also include an FSA (field solutions architect, or domain expert) and a Principal Technology Strategist (or Field CTO).
I don’t think it would be breaking news to say that sales is a team sport. And as in any team sport, trust between team members has to be earned, it is never given. There are different perspectives that team members bring to the table, and everyone is driven by something. It can be money, recognition, status or a title. Once you understand what drives behavior, you can adjust your communication style and the way the information is delivered.
In my opinion, there should not be a hard line division between AE and SE. Beach volleyball comes to mind. You are both barefoot, playing on an uneven sand surface, and you both need to be skilled in serving, spiking the ball, blocking, digging and assisting.
In today’s technology world, selling value no longer means showing a product or solution demo. I think it is the art of storytelling. A good SE can easily become a clinical psychiatrist. We are in the people business, and understanding the people across the table from us, their goals and ambitions, will affect the delivery method of the value message. I wrote before about what makes the A+ SEs. You simply cannot rehearse the same story and repeat it every time to every prospect.
My advice to you is to start with research. There are plenty of tools available to sellers today, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and others. You can master the prompts and get a good picture of the target customer’s business, needs, and desired outcomes.
Fair warning, be careful. Not everything that comes out of these tools is true and accurate. A few days ago I was preparing for a 30-minute first call with a prospect. I did deep research and created a 19-page document. During the meeting I said, we did our research and based on what we saw, here is what we think you have in the data center. We were on a Zoom video call and he laughed. No, we don’t have any of that here. This should be a red flag to anyone out there. I wrote about this risk in my 4 part series last month.
Let’s move forward. The days of traditional technical discovery are long gone. Business evolved, technology evolved. Active listening is one of the most critical skills that a well-functioning sales team should have. I am not suggesting you should abandon the art and science of technical discovery, though. Through active listening you should always look for clues, and in today’s world you have to learn and hone the skill of identifying the non-verbal ones. Posture, body language, are they looking at their phones and not paying attention?
Never lie or embellish. Always be honest about what the solution can and cannot do. You lie just once and not only do you lose credibility, you also lose the hard-earned trust that took such a long time to establish.
I have already talked about research. But research by itself, in a vacuum, is not going to produce the results you may be looking for. To get better, always work on joint strategy with your AE. They are smart business people and their experience can be invaluable. And as you are doing your research and preparing for the meeting, discuss the strategy with the bigger team too, who is going to say what on the call.
Rehearse your story, your value message and yes, your demo too. Live demos can still crash and burn today, just like 20 years ago. Think of delivering your message, your story, as acting. Own the room, be confident but not cocky. Always keep in mind the process of continuous improvement. Write down your notes, objections and lessons learned, and weave them into your next presentation. Ask your AE or manager for feedback. They will gladly give it to you.
There is a good reason some AEs and SEs refer to their counterparts as “work spouses”. Great SEs and AEs complete each other’s sentences. They become life-long friends. They trust each other.
This level of team performance takes patience and understanding, just like any successful marriage.
If I had to define why SEs even exist, I would probably think of a field in the CRM that is called “technical selling complete”. This is the ultimate goal of the sales process. Not a demo, not a presentation, and not a story.
Learn how your AE thinks, be genuinely interested, invest in the relationship, understand their ambitions and always share the spotlight.
I appreciate you reading.
Dmitry Gorbatov
© 2025 Dmitry Gorbatov | #dmitrywashere